Our Hollow, Our Home – “Burn In The Flood” (Album Review)

**Our Hollow, Our Home**
Album: **Burn In The Flood**
Release: 28.05.2021

Our Hollow, Our Home from Southampton have been toiling away over the last eight years carving a name for themselves in the UK, and with previous releases and fairly relentless touring across the UK and the Continent they’ve built a pretty huge and rabid fan-base.

Now in 2021, OHOH release their latest album, “Burn in The Flood” – which the band themselves describe as “some of the rawest, most open and honest material” they’ve ever written. On first listen the initial impression is a further refining of their sound. Opener and title track, “Burn in the Flood” opens with a statement of intent from the band, threading crushing heaviness with anthemic choruses which is the central feel of this record.

Standout moments from the album are plentiful, with my personal favourites being “Monarch” which feels like it could easily become a modern metalcore staple in clubs up and down the UK. “Better Daze” is a track that I could envision in a swarming crowd, with an electronic bridge in the middle of the track that leads to a huge chunky boi of a riff – this would definitely be a song to experience live.

Smart features throughout the album are topped emphatically by Ryo Kinoshita of Japanese metal stalwarts Crystal Lake. Whose guest vocals on “Remember Me” are exactly as you’d expect, raw and huge. As a track it keeps that by now signature sound of OHOH, but it dives headfirst into the darker sounds of the album – and Ryo truly brings a new texture to the track when he’s present.

“Children of Manus” continues this darker theme, and also includes a feature by Aussie Nu-Metalcore Alpha Wolf‘s vocalist, Lochie Keough – I felt that the electronics really shone on this track in big way. Penultimate slow burner “Blood” brings a bit of a reprieve with some well placed acoustics and paving the way for a poignant moment to remember those we’ve lost along the way.

If I truly had to levy some criticism at the album, I would say that some of the choruses felt largely similar. This isn’t to say that any are bad, this is a very well written collection of songs. There is a formula at work here and it really works well.

Conversely the absolute highlight for me is the track “Nerv” which features Oli Duncanson. Whereas the chorus here is again, another great anthemic crowd pleaser, it’s in the deeper cuts of the track that I’m really drawn in. Some “There is a Hell…” era BMTH-esque choral synth backing up the track in sections really took this track into overdrive for me.

Our Hollow, Our Home feel like a band on the cusp of breaking through to the next level, and it truly wouldn’t surprise me to see them on some bigger support slots over the next couple of years, and they frankly deserve it for the obviously hard work they’ve put in. This is a band to watch.

– Finnbar Connell (iHammer Collective)